The mother of an unrepentant schoolgirl who fled London to join Islamic State and now wants to return so the NHS can care for her baby says she understands why 'people in this country don't want her back'.
Jihadi bride Shamima Begum was just 15 when she and two pupils from Bethnal Green travelled to Syria four years ago and became a jihadi bride by marrying an IS fighter.
Shamima, 19, who is nine months pregnant with her third child, is living in in a refugee camp in northern Syria having chosen to flee the group's last stand two weeks ago over fears for her unborn child.
The teenager said she didn't regret her decision but wants to 'come home to Britain'.
Today Begum's brother-in-law Mohammed Rehman spoke of how her mother had wept after speaking with her daughter on the phone, and how the family can understand the anger of people who don't want the teenager to return to the UK.
He said: 'The family spoke with Shamima today. It was very emotional. There's a mixture of elation and sorrow. We are happy that she's alive but sad that things have come to this. She's lost two children and put us all through a lot of heart ache. She's also gone through a very difficult time herself.
'Shamima's mother broke down when she heard her voice. Until the interview with her appeared in the newspaper we didn't know if she was alive or not. So you can imagine, this has come as a shock to us all.
'At one stage we thought she was dead. There has been no contact with her in almost 2 years. Shamima's mum just cried and told her to come home. She promised to make her her favourite food. We want her to come back so that she can be re-educated. As a family we can't understand how her head was turned like this and why she thought going to Syria was a good idea.
'I can understand why people in this country are angry and don't want her back. What she's done doesn't portray Islam in a good light. But she was only 15 when she went to Syria. We are appealing for compassion and understanding on her behalf.'
Shamima Begum (pictured in her passport photo, and right before she left aged 15) is now 19 and is alive in Syria - she wants to return to the UK
Fully-veiled women and their children carrying their belongings fleeing from Baghuz in eastern Syria, the final ISIS stronghold about to fall and where Begum claims to have been two weeks ago
Shamima Begum and her friend fled to Syria by flying to Istanbul and getting a bus across Turkey to the Islamic State's capital, Raqqa. She moved to Mayadin with her jihadi husband Yago Riedijk but fled Baghuz when he was captured and is now in al-Hawl
Begum is the only known survivor of the three friends from Bethnal Green and her two children died of disease and malnutrition before the age of one as the caliphate fell apart around her.
The schoolgirl claims she lived a 'normal life' in ISIS' capital Raqqa and was 'not fazed' by the brutal execution of its enemies, recounting how she once found an 'an enemy of Islam's' decapitated head in a bin.
But with her third baby now due any day and her jihadi husband Yago Riedijk captured, she has decided to quit and now wants to 'live quietly' back in the UK and ensure her baby survives with the help of the NHS.
Yesterday security minister Ben Wallace admitted she has the right to return to the UK but they would not help her and said: 'Actions have consequences. I'm not putting at risk British people's lives to go and look for terrorists or former terrorists in a failed state'.
In an extraordinary interview with The Times' Anthony Loyd, she said: 'I don't regret coming here. But I have to think about my baby as well. After my two kids died I'm scared this baby is going to get sick - that's why I really want to get back to Britain because I know it will be taken care of. Healthcare-wise at least'.
But critics say her lack of remorse proves she is a radical and potential danger to Britain, who should be barred from returning or arrested and prosecuted at the very least.
Dr Kim Howells, a former Foreign Office and Counter-Terrorism Minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, said: 'She sounds to be completely unrepentant, she sounds cynical, she said she wasn't fazed by the sight of these heads in a bin as she described it. And now she wants to take advantage of the NHS. You can bet your bottom dollar there will be a lobby to get this girl home on humanitarian grounds.'
Nigel Farage said: 'This woman shows no remorse for her actions, remains a committed jihadist and is totally unsuitable to come into our country'.
Begum has now fled to the al-Hawl refugee camp near Syria's north-eastern border with Iraq - 200 miles north of ISIS' last stand in Baghuz, where she last saw her Dutch jihadi fighter husband two weeks ago.
She said: 'I'm not the same silly little 15-year-old schoolgirl who ran away from Bethnal Green four years ago.
The families of Amira Abase and Shamima Begum had previously appealed for the young girls to return home
Renu Begum (pictured above), eldest sister of Shamima Begum, 15, holds her sister's photo. Renu had previously given interviews to New Scotland Yard in order to assist them with their investigation
'I know what everyone at home thinks of me as I have read all that was written about me online. But I just want to come home to have my child. That's all I want right now'.
She added: 'I'll do anything required just to be able to come home and live quietly with my child.'
Britain's Security Minister Ben Wallace said today the ISIS bride will not be rescued - but will be helped back to the UK if she gets to a consulate in Turkey or Iraq and questioned by police, and put in the dock 'if possible'.
He said: 'She's a British citizen, she has rights. That's the reality of it. It's not about me or anyone else saying you can't come. You have rights. But you know, don't be surprised by what reception you get when you come back when it comes to investigations and law enforcement'.
Mr Wallace also also warned she should 'expect to be prosecuted' at the 'very least'.
Her family's lawyer Tasnime Akunjee, who represented the parents of all three girls in the past, today insisted that Shamima is a 'victim' and should not be prosecuted for joining ISIS.
Asked what he made of Shamima's wish to return to the UK, he said he hadn't spoken to her and added: 'It's entirely understandable give her circumstances. My involvement of it was trying to bring Shamima back on behalf of the family but she is doing it herself'.
In an interview where she showed no remorse for joining a terror group - but wants to come back to Britain for the sake of her child, Begum revealed:
- Shamima Begum wants to return to the UK for the sake of her unborn child after two of her children died
- Her fellow runaways also married jihadis - Kadiza Sultana is dead and Amira Abase is with ISIS fighters currently in their final stand in Baghuz;
- Begum says she does not 'regret' joining ISIS and was 'not fazed' by its executions or when she saw an enemy's head in a bin;
- Jihadi bride lost two children under the age of one because of disease and lack of food - she wants the third to grow up and 'live quietly' with her in the UK;
- Her lawyer Tasnime Akunjee says that she and the other girls are 'victims' - and previously Met Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said the trio would not be prosecuted;
- Security minister Ben Wallace says Begum has the 'right' to come home - but will not be rescued from Syria and faces arrest if she gets back to the UK;
Begum said she had a 'normal life' with her jihadi husband Yago Riedijk, 27, who she met and married within three weeks of arriving in Syria.
Timeline of the London girls' journey into ISIS' heart of terror - but now one wants to come home
2014
- December - Counter terrorism police question Shamima Begum, Kadiz Sultana and Amira Abase after their friend Sharmeema Begum goes to Syria.
2015
- February 17 - Kadiza Sultana, 16, and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase leave their east London homes at 8am to travel to Istanbul in Turkey from Gatwick Airport (pictured). Begum and Abase - who has not yet been publicly named - are reported missing by their families later the same day.
- February 18 - Sultana is reported missing to the police.
- February 20 - The Metropolitan Police launch a public appeal for information on the missing girls who are feared to have gone on to Syria.
- February 21 - Four days after the girls went missing, police believe they may still be in Turkey.
It is revealed that at least one of the missing girls had Twitter contact with Aqsa Mahmood, who left her Glasgow home in November 2013 and travelled to Syria after becoming radicalised.
- February 22 - Abase's father Abase Hussen says his daughter told him she was going to a wedding on the day she disappeared.
Metropolitan Police officers arrive in Turkey, but refuse to confirm whether they are involved in the search for the teenagers.
- February 23 - Mark Keary, the head teacher at Bethnal Green Academy, says police found no evidence the missing students were radicalised there.
- February 24 - Turkish deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc criticises British authorities for taking three days to alert the country over the missing schoolgirls.
- March 10 - It emerges that the girls funded their trip by stealing jewellery. In Syria, all three girls are married to foreign fighters.
2016
- August 2016 - Sultana, 17, is reportedly killed in Raqqa when a suspected Russian air strike obliterates her house.
2019
- February 14 - Begum, 19, tells Anthony Loyd of The Times that she wants to return to the UK to give birth to her third child. Speaking from a refugee camp in Syria, she adds she does not regret joining IS and that she believes, contrary to reports in 2018, that her other companion Abase is still alive in Baghuz.
She said: 'Mostly it was a normal life in Raqqa, every now and then bombing and stuff. But when I saw my first severed head in a bin it didn't faze me at all. It was from a captured fighter seized on the battlefield, an enemy of Islam. I thought only of what he would have done to a Muslim woman if he had the chance'.
However the 19-year-old says she does not regret joining the terror group and said she was 'weak' for not staying to the bitter end – but now wants to come home.
Up until 2017 ISIS banned women from fighting for them but those who fled the regime said that in the past two years that some jihadi brides had been trained in warfare, using guns and building bombs.
Begum did not say what she had done for ISIS other than marry a fighter and have his children.
She said her husband surrendered to a group of Syrian fighters allied to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and she has not seen him since.
Fellow jihadi bride Kadiza Sultana died two years ago in an air strike, she said, and Amira Abase is still with her ISIS fighter husband but has not been seen since last summer.
Security Minister Ben Wallace today confirmed that Begum 'has a right to come home' and will be allowed back into Britain if she presents herself at a British consulate in Iraq or Turkey - but will not be rescued despite being pregnant.
He said: 'I'm not putting at risk British people's lives to go and look for terrorists or former terrorists in a failed state - there's consular services elsewhere in the region.
'British citizens have rights whoever they are but if they have gone join ISIS and return to the UK they can expect to be questioned and, if possible, prosecuted'.
He added: 'Actions have consequences. I think the public will be reflecting on why these people want to return to a country they said they hate'.
Mr Wallace refused to be drawn further on Begum's case but admitted it was 'very worrying' that she had 'no regrets' about joining ISIS, which he called the 'worst terror group in history'.
Times war correspondent Anthony Loyd, who found Ms Begum, told the BBC Today programme she is 'two things' - 'She is the 15-year-old schoolgirl who was groomed and lured to the caliphate, and four years later, with that background, she is an indoctrinated jihadi bride.'
Loyd added: 'She didn't express regret, she said she had no regrets, she was calm and composed but she was also in a state of shock - she had just come out of a battlefield, nine months pregnant, many of her friends dead and she's gone through air strikes and all the rest of it - so I wouldn't want to rush to judge her too harshly.
'She was a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl who made a terrible mistake... and we must do our best to rehabilitate her amongst our own people'.
Today there are calls for Begum to be barred from returning to the UK completely or arrested and jailed if she sets foot on British soil.
But at the time of her disappearance four years ago Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, then Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said if the girls came back they would be treated as 'victims' who were groomed online and would not be prosecuted.
Around 800 men, women and children from Britain went to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS - but 400 returned and only around 40 have been prosecuted for terrorism offences.
The majority have been put in the dock using Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which relates to 'preparation of terrorist acts' and can be applied to jihadi brides if they can prove they were 'assisting others' in preparing or carrying out acts of terror.
Those convicted using this law have been jailed for up to seven years - but the law is being changed to increase this to ten years in prison.
Sir Peter Fahy, former head of Greater Manchester Police, said he could understand why Britain is 'not particularly interested' in bringing her back.
He said: 'If the woman was showing complete remorse, it would be completely different'.
Former Met Chief Superintenden Dal Babu said she and her friends were 'victim of brainwashing'.
Labour MP Harriet Harman said: 'I agree. 4 years ago she was only 14. Groomed online (I presume) lured abroad to be used for sex, became pregnant, lost babies. CPS will consider prosecution if she's committed crimes. But UK is her home'.
Kadiza Sultana, then 16, Amira Abase, then 15 and Shamima Begum, then 15, (left to right) in images released by police in 2015 after they ran off to Syria
Begum is today among the displaced people al-Hawl refugee camp near Syria's north-eastern border with Iraq (pictured last week)
The ISIS bride believes that her baby could die if she is not helped back to Britain because of conditions there
Around a fortnight ago the teenager from London was among those who fled ISIS' last foothold in Syria, Baghouz, where tens of thousands have fled the fighting (survivors in a cap nearby pictured yesterday)
'Our daughters were manipulated by evil people. They should be helped, not punished': Father of one of the 'Bethnal Green Three' - who fled London to join ISIS - claim they 'pose no threat' to Britain
The father of one of the 'Bethnal Green three' says Britain has a duty to welcome Shamima Begum back and told MailOnline today: 'She should be allowed to come home and have her baby in peace'.
Abase Hussen, 52, (right today) the father of Bethnal Green jihadi bride Amira Abase who once was filmed at a London flag-burning rally also attended by Anjem Choudary, said the schoolgirls are victims who should be brought back to the UK and 'helped, not punished'.
Miss Begum is in a Syrian refugee camp about to have her third child and says that her friend Amira is alive but Kadiza Sultana died in an air strike two years ago.
Mr Hussen told MailOnline today: 'These girls were young. They were manipulated by evil people and they should be brought home and helped. Not punished. They pose no threat.
'The British government have not done anything to help me or the other parents. We have been badly treated. Shamima should be allowed to come home and have her baby in peace.
'I'm just waiting for the time when I can see my daughter. Ever since she left I have had hope. Tomorrow is another day. You never know what will happen tomorrow. The last time I spoke to her was a very, very long time ago.'
Mr Hussen (circled) attended a heat preacher's rally alongside one of Lee Rigby's killers - and took his daughter - yet said he moved to Britain in 1999 for freedom and democracy
When asked if he thinks the girls should be able to return to Britain to restart their lives, he said: 'As a parent there is no question. To have your children around you... there is no question. That would make me happy. It gives me some hope as well.'
He added: 'It was just a mistake that the girls left their families to go to a place like that.
'What I would say to her, if she reads this, is just come back, please. Come home to us. That's all I can say'.
He went on: 'The last conversation we had with my daughter was over a year ago when she called out of the blue.
'I was full of so much sorrow that I couldn't speak with her properly. My heart is filled with grief.
'I have two other teenage children and I constantly worry about what they are getting up to and that they might also be radicalised. I'm a humble man, I fear God and don't deserve this.'
'All the children that have runaway to Syria and been manipulated should be helped home. There's been no co-ordination in helping our children to return. Nothing is being done for us.
'The intelligence services visited a few times but we've had no help from the government'.
Abase works as a security guard and originates from Ethiopia. He's been in the UK since 1999. The daughter who's in Syria was born in Ethiopia.
Mr Hussen blamed police for failing to stop his daughter fleeing to join ISIS.
But months after she vanished it emerged he took his daughter to an extremist rally when she was 13.
He conceded the teenager was 'maybe' influenced by the rally organised by banned terror group Al-Muhajiroun.
Jihadi bride Shamima Begum should 'still be considered a potential combatant' unless she cooperates with British intelligence, according to a leading security expert.
Will Geddes warned the 19-year-old could be an 'extreme challenge' to de-radicalise as she is yet to show any remorse for joining 'enemies of the UK.'
The counter terrorism specialist, said the expectant mother is now 'exploiting her British nationality'.
Mr Geddes, managing director of security consultancy ICP Group said: 'I do find it quite astounding that she feels she is justified to be able to do so and come back to a country she rejected to use the infrastructure that benefited her originally like the NHS that she has not contributed towards for four years.
'Until recently she was facilitating those who are enemies of the UK - she is exploiting her British national status and there some requirements that she would have to be subject to.
'Fundamentally, unless she was willing to provide critical information to the UK intelligence services and authorities about the Islamic State operation and its people, infrastructure and current circumstances, she should still be treated as a hostile individual and potential combatant towards the UK.'
The director of international security studies at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Raffaello Pantucci, said the UK needs to 'tackle the issue head on.'
He said it is hard to prosecute for crimes abroad once they are back in the UK and if a national process cannot be established, an international one may be considered for what is a 'very complicated and difficult' issue.
Mr Pantucci said: 'It needs to be a criminal process - a programme to make sure they disengage from their ideas.
'It is very difficult for countries to take them back - another solution could be the use of a third location in setting up international court and international prisons for them to go through this process before they return.'
Hanif Qadir, a reformed extremist who now runs the Active Change Foundation, a de-radicalisation project in London, said Begum deserves the opportunity to transform her life and give birth in safety following her 'naive and childish mistake.'
Speaking from the Republic of Mali, where he is running reintegration workshop, Mr Qadir said: 'Of course she should be allowed to return home, why should she not?
'She is as much a victim in this as anything.
'If you look at why she left to go to Syria and the circumstances surrounding that, I do believe she is not going to be a threat.
Begum said last night she understood why people in Britain would not have sympathy for her but insists that she would 'do anything' to bring her baby back to the UK.
Four years ago she arrived in ISIS' capital Raqqa with her teenage friend and were placed in a home for 'single women'.
They filled out registration forms and expressed preferences over what kind of fighter they wanted to be in a relationship with.
Within three weeks was married to a Dutch jihadi Yago Riedijk, 27 - a Muslim convert from Arnhem - and she is currently pregnant with her third child - the other two died before they turned one.
Sultana married an American, Abase an Australian and friend Sharmeena Begum, who arrived in 2014, a Bosnian.
Miss Begum claimed she had been living a normal life despite the atrocities - but now wants to return to Britain to bring up the baby she's about to give birth to.
When asked about why she had not stayed in ISIS' she said: 'I was weak'.
Miss Begum and her friends, Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, fled east London in the footsteps of another Bethnal Green schoolgirl, Sharmeena Begum, who had left the year before.
She said each married a ISIS foreign fighter on reaching Syria.
After they moved Amira used a Twitter account with a profile picture of herself clutching a knife while wearing a full veil.
In a bid encourage others to visit she posted pictures of her heating takeaways in Raqqa.
But as the tide in the war turned ISIS lost territory and the regime collapsed.
Miss Begum said her first two children died in infancy due to disease and malnourishment.
Disillusioned, the young woman told how she had fled the final ISIS stronghold fearing that her unborn baby, who she says is due any day, would suffer the same fate.
She conceived the child with ISIS fighter Yago Riedijk, 27, a Dutchman who converted to Islam. The pair married only weeks after she arrived in Raqqa in 2015. Miss Begum admitted she was aware many would want her barred from returning home.
She conceded 'the caliphate is over' and had witnessed 'so much oppression and corruption that I don't think they deserved victory'.
Shamima Begum one of three schoolgirls at Gatwick Airport as she left the UK to marry a foreign fighter for ISIS
Bethnal Green runaway Amira Abase (left in September) used a pictured of a woman in a full veil clutching a knife on her Twitter page, which has been shut down
In a bid encourage others to run to Syria Abase, using the name Umm Uthman Britaniya, she posted pictures of her heating takeaways in Raqqa
Jihadi bride will not be rescued - but can come home, says minister
Britain will not 'risk lives' to save Shamima Begum - but will not block her from coming back to Britain, the minister in charge said today.
There is a clamour for the teenager to have her passport revoked and banned from the UK.
The Home Office said it does not comment on individual cases, although anyone who returns to the UK after travelling to IS territory faces criminal investigation and stricter laws are now in place.
Security Minister Ben Wallace (pictured today) said: 'I'm not putting at risk British people's lives to go and look for terrorists or former terrorists in a failed state - there's consular services elsewhere in the region and the strong message this Government has given for many years is that actions have consequences.
'People have gone out in the past to fight for ISIS, when they've decided they've had enough they want to come back to the very country they've abandoned or waged war against. That irony isn't lost on the government, it isn't lost on the public.
'We don't provide consular assistance in Syria. So this lady, like many of the others, we're not going to put British diplomats and other people at risk to go and find them in a war-torn civil war that's under collapse. She is eligible for consular assistance if she makes it to a country where there is that – Turkey, Iraq – we as the UK are obliged to our citizens to make sure that when they seek that support they get the support without discrimination.'
He added: 'If she's a British citizen, she has rights. That's the reality of it. It's not about me or anyone else saying you can't come. You have rights. But you know, don't be surprised by what reception you get when you come back when it comes to investigations and law enforcement.'
Miss Begum fled the final ISIS stronghold in Baghuz, eastern Syria, as Western-backed Kurdish forces closed in on the town. She said: 'I was weak. I could not endure the suffering and hardship that staying on the battlefield involved.
'But I was also frightened the child I am about to give birth to would die like my other children if I stayed on.
'So I fled the caliphate. Now all I want to do is come home to Britain.'
Tasnime Akunjee, a lawyer who was instructed by the Bethnal Green girls' families after they ran away, said he was 'glad (Ms Begum) is alive and safe'.
He told the Press Association the authorities should be reminded of former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe's position at the time of their disappearance.
'The position of the Metropolitan Police was that they should be treated as victims, so long as they hadn't committed any further offences while they are out there,' he said.
Mr Akunjee said he had spoken to the girls' families, who had 'expressed the position that they want time and space to process what's happened'.
He added: 'I personally would like to see somebody like her who's gone through the trauma she had - who's gone out there as a child - get as much help as she can get and get on with her life and I would hope that for any human being'.
Bethnal Green and Bow MP Rushanara Ali said: 'At the time, when Shamima Begum and two other girls disappeared and it was feared they were heading for Syria via Turkey, I made representations to the then home secretary Theresa May and the head of counter-terrorism at the Metropolitan Police.
'I appealed to them to work with the Turkish authorities to prevent the girls from crossing the border into Syria.
'Unfortunately, despite the efforts of the UK authorities, the girls did get into Syria and as subsequent reports suggest, they joined IS.
'If it is the case that Shamima Begum is trying to return to the UK, it is now a matter for the UK police, security services and the Foreign Office, who will rightly need to consider public safety and our national security in cases such as these.'
She also poured scorn on the Western hostages she had watched being beheaded on videos.
She said: 'Journalists can be spies too, entering Syria illegally. They are a security threat for the caliphate.'
It is unclear whether she was referring specifically to the British victims beheaded by ISIS, Alan Henning and David Haines, both killed in 2014.
ISIS terror group loses control of two more villages and women and children flee the last remaining square mile strip of their 'caliphate'
ISIS 'elite' militants are being cleared from two more villages today in the last remaining strip of the terror group's 'caliphate' amid fierce fighting with US-backed Syrian forces.
Dramatic footage has emerged purportedly showing ISIS fanatics firing anti-tank missiles at US-backed forces in a bloody defence of their last Syrian stronghold measuring just one square mile.
Fanatics have been hiding among the local population and detaining others attempting to flee with women and children escaping the area, the US-led coalition said today.
The coalition said the clearance operations of the remaining terrorists was taking place today in the villages of Shajalah and Baghouz, in eastern Syria near the border with Iraq.
Thousands of people have fled Baghouz as the fighting rages, including women and children but also suspected jihadists.
The SDF believes 400 to 600 jihadists may be holed up there, including foreigners and other hardened militants.
Last defence: Dramatic footage has emerged purportedly showing ISIS fanatics firing anti-tank missiles at US-backed forces in a bloody defence of their last Syrian stronghold
Fighters with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in position during an operation to expel the remaining ISIS jihadists from the Baghouz area
Wreckage: A Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) armoured vehicle drives through destroyed streets near the front line in Baghouz
Scores of militants from ISIS - including many foreign fighters - surrendered to US-backed fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) last night.
The surrender brought the Kurdish-led force closer to taking full control of the last remaining area held by the extremists, a Kurdish official and activists said.
Mustafa Bali, an SDF spokesman, said hundreds of women and children escaped the area yesterday.
He said the fighters who remained appeared to be among the IS elite who have lots of experience and are fighting 'fiercely'.
'They also don't have other options. Either to surrender or die,' Bali said.
Since early December, more than 38,000 people, mostly wives and children of ISIS fighters, have fled into SDF-held areas, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
That figure includes around 3,400 suspected jihadists detained by the SDF, according to the monitor.
Opposition group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights shows US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces fighters looking at smoke rising from a shell that targeted Islamic State group militants, in the village of Baghouz in eastern Syria
A military vehicle with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) during an operation to expel Islamic State jihadists from Baghouz
A SDF fighter taking aim against remaining jihadists in Baghouz. Syrian fighters battled a fierce jihadist counteroffensive as they pushed to retake a last territory from the militants
Çiyager Amed, an official with the Syrian Democratic Forces, confirmed that a number of ISIS fighters who had been holed up in the village of Baghouz gave themselves up, without giving numbers.
He said most of those remaining were Iraqis and foreigners and that few civilians remained in the tiny sliver of land still in ISIS hands, although women and children are continuing to trickle out of the enclave.
The capture of Baghouz and nearby areas would mark the end of a devastating four-year global campaign to end the extremist group's hold on territory in Syria and Iraq.
President Donald Trump has said the group is all but defeated, and announced in December that he would withdraw all American forces from Syria.
A coalition official, however, warned Wednesday that ISIS continues to pose a threat to the security of the region even if their hold on territory ends.
Men believed to be Islamic State fighters and their families walking in a field as they leave the last stronghold of the IS jihadists
Civilians fleeing the Islamic State as Syrian forces vehicles move in to the territory in the east of the country near the Iraq border
'While ISIS is on the verge of collapse, and the end of the physical caliphate is at hand it does not signal the end of this campaign,' said U.K. Maj. Gen. Christopher Ghika, using another acronym for ISIS. 'We will pursue them until that threat is eliminated.'
The coalition statement said SDF forces are detaining ISIS militants who are attempting to escape among the civilians fleeing the fighting in Baghouz.
Those 'arriving to be screened are the wives of ISIS fighters, some of whom sustained gunshot wounds while fleeing from ISIS,' Ghika said.
The final push to clear ISIS from remaining territory it holds in Syria comes as the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran are meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Thursday for talks about the latest developments in northern Syria.
Hundreds of women and children fled the villages of Shajalah and Baghouz, according to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
Some IS militants remaining in the embattled villages have been hiding amongst civilians and detaining those who try and flee
Russia, a key backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad, is getting increasingly impatient about militants in Syria's Idlib province.
Russia and Turkey, which supports the Syrian opposition, had brokered a cease-fire for Idlib, the last remaining rebel stronghold that averted a major government offensive but that deal has been strained as al-Qaida-linked militants seized towns and villages in Idlib.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says Russia is going to raise its concerns at the talks about the presence of 'terrorists' there.
Miss Begum said Amira and Sharmeena had decided to remain in Baghuz. Kadiza was reportedly killed two years ago.
She said she 'last saw my two friends in June' of last year but had heard 'only two weeks ago' the pair were still alive.
However, she feared that 'all the recent bombing' may have killed them. Miss Begum praised their decision to remain.
'They urged patience and endurance in the caliphate and chose to stay behind in Baghuz,' she said.
'They would be ashamed of me if they survived the bombing and battle to learn that I had left.
'They made their choice as single women. For their husbands were already dead. It was their own choice as women to stay.' Miss Begum told her story to Times journalist Anthony Loyd.
He found her alone in the Al Hawl camp – a facility for around 39,000 refugees in northern Syria.
The three schoolgirls had initially flown to Turkey after telling their parents they were going out for the day. They later crossed the border into Syria. Miss Begum said: 'I applied to marry an English-speaking fighter between 20 and 25 years old.'
Kadiza married an American, Amira married an Australian and Sharmeena married a Bosnian. She said: 'There was a lot of oppressions of innocent people.
'In some cases fighters who had fought for the caliphate were executed as spies even though they were innocent.'
She said that her husband spent six months in prison after being accused of treachery.
She left her home in Raqqa in January 2017 with him and their first child, a daughter who later died along with her son in the all-round chaos of military defeat.
IS told jihadi families to make their own decisions as to whether to flee.
The couple left together but her husband surrendered to a fighters opposed to IS. That was the last time she saw him.
The three girls fled to Syria via Turkey in 2015 by plane and bus - their families claimed that they had no clue they were going and believed they were together getting ready for a wedding
From one hell to another: Inside the overcrowded refugee camp where children of ISIS brides - including a pregnant British teenager - suffer malnutrition and hypothermia after fleeing the battlefield in Syria
Standing in line for water and food at the refugee camp in northern Syria are hundreds of women, most of the adults clad from head to toe in black, covering cloth.
Some are innocent civilians caught in the crossfire of Syria's continuing civil war, while others are fierce supporters of ISIS and married to those fighting for the murderous terrorist group still desperately clinging on to a sliver of land several hours away.
Regardless of alliance to the Syrian government, freedom fighters or ISIS, their children are suffering the worst punishment, with conditions in the overcrowded camp dire as more refugees pile in every day.
Truckloads of gaunt women and children fleeing ISIS's last stand near the village of Baghouz, close to the Iraqi border, disembark daily at the Al-Hol camp, including 200 who arrived on Thursday.
Women who have fled the area near the Iraqi border which is still under ISIS control is seen in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp of al-Hol in al-Hasakeh governorate in northeastern Syria
Thousands of women and children, many of them wives of ISIS fighters and leaders, have turned up at the al-Hol camp in recent weeks as US-backed Kurdish forces close in on the terror group. It is not known if the women seen in these photographs are ISIS brides
The innocent ones: A baby cries at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp of al-Hol in al-Hasakeh governorate in northeastern Syria, where dozens of young children have died in recent months as a result of hypothermia and malnutrition
Al-Hol - also known as al-Hawl - has been flooded with more than 25,000 displaced people in recent weeks as military operations ramp up against the terrorist group in the Euphrates Valley, 200 miles away from the camp.
It is in this camp that 19-year-old Shamima Begum, who was just 15 when she and two classmates Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase travelled from London's Bethnal Green to Syria in February 2015, now lives.
Speaking to the Times, Begum says she does not regret joining ISIS and said she was 'weak' for not staying to the bitter end after her two young children died.
However, Begum is desperate to return to the UK as soon as possible, as she is nine months pregnant and fears her third child will die like her others if she gives birth in the Al-Hol camp.
There has been little food, water and medicine available in Baghouz, and dozens of children who, unlike Begum's two children, survived the fighting have died on the journey to the refugee camp.
The camp is home to thousands who have been forced to leave their homes as a result of the civil war - not all have fled ISIS
A Syrian woman holding a child talks to a medic at a makeshift clinic at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp of al-Hol in al-Hasakeh governorate
Across war-ravaged Syria, 18,700 children under five are suffering from malnutrition, according to the World Food Programme
Medics at Al-Hol, which has been flooded with more than 25,000 displaced in recent weeks as military operations ramped up, do not have the capacity to treat severely malnourished children and must send them on to hospitals in an hour away
A Kurdish female fighter, left, walks next to a woman, reportedly the wife of an ISIS fighter at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp of al-Hol
A woman holding a young child sits in front of the many tents that make up the IDP camp in al-Hol
Syrian medics treat a baby at a makeshift clinic at the camp in northeastern Syria while the child's concerned mother looks on
Al-Hol has been flooded with more than 25,000 displaced people in recent weeks as military operations ramp up against the terrorist group in the Euphrates Valley, 200 miles away from the camp
'They're just skin and bones when they get here,' Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC) paediatrician Dr. Antar Senno told AFP at a makeshift clinic in Al-Hol.
Conditions in the camp are better than on the road, but the makeshift tents, overcrowding and sparse resources pose a great health risk to children, with at least 29 dying in al-Hol in the past two months, mainly because of hypothermia, the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week.
Red Crescent workers quickly scan the infants - particularly those under a year old - for thin limbs, taut and dried-out skin, or signs of diarrhoea, when they arrive said Senno.
'The team combs the entire reception tent. If they see a case that could be malnutrition, they immediately pull the child aside and put him in an ambulance,' he said.
But the journey does not end there. Medics at Al-Hol do not have the capacity to treat severely malnourished children and must send them on to hospitals in the city of Hasakeh an hour away.
That makes every moment even more precious, said Senno.
A Syrian woman holding a child waits at a makeshift clinic at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp of al-Hol in al-Hasakeh governorate
A makeshift clinic in a tent provided by UNICEF offers some help, but there are thousands of children in need of care
At least 29 children have died in al-Hol in the past two months, mainly because of hypothermia, the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week
A woman covered in black from head to toe carries food at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp of al-Hol
A displaced woman holding a child sits on the ground outside a clinic in the camp. More than 37,000 people have fled the shrinking ISIS-held enclave in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces bear down on the jihadists
'They're practically dead when they get here. But if we can catch them and send them to hospital in Hasakeh, we can save their lives,' he said.
'It's not about the same day. It's about the same minute.'
More than 37,000 people have fled the shrinking ISIS-held enclave in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces bear down on the jihadists.
Many walk for days in the desert to reach an SDF-run collection point, where they are screened, provided with some food and water and loaded into trucks for the hours-long journey north to Al-Hol.
But that desert odyssey can be deadly - at least 35 newborns and infants have died either en route to the camp or just after they arrive, according to the United Nations.
One camp worker told AFP he saw women tumble out of trucks cradling lifeless babies, not knowing they had died on the road.
Authorities at Al-Hol have imposed tight security measures amid fears jihadists could be posing as fleeing civilians.
Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) can be life-threatening for children, particularly infants who could literally waste away.
Across war-ravaged Syria, 18,700 children under five are suffering from SAM, according to the World Food Programme.
'I'm scared my baby is going to get sick in this camp - I know it'll be taken care of in Britain': ISIS jihadi bride on why she wants to return to UK four years after fleeing to Syria
Shamima Begum was tracked down by The Times to a refugee camp in northern Syria where she is now 19-years-old, the bride of an Islamic State fighter, nine months pregnant and has had two infant children who are dead. Her husband is in captivity.
Here is the interview in full:
Anthony Loyd [AL]: 'You're one of the Bethnal Green girls right?'
Begum: 'Yes, I'm one of the Bethnal Green girls.
'We crossed the borders and we were in a house full of women for about a week.
'They realised who we were, that we were the three girls and they took us to a house, a man's house.
'And we stayed there for about another week. They didn't tell us why we were there.
'We kept asking his wife 'why are we here?' We want to go to the house of women, we want to see our friend.
'She didn't say anything to use and the afterwards we found out that it was because they suspected we were spies.
'I was only there for about three weeks because after that I got married.'
Loyd: 'Then you lived together in Raqqa or somewhere else?'
Begum: 'In Raqqa'
Loyd: 'Did that fulfill your aspirations?'
Begum: 'Yes, it actually really did. It was like a normal life, like the life they show in the propaganda videos.
'It's a normal life but every now and then there are bombs and stuff.'
Loyd: Did you ever see executions?
Begum: 'No, but I saw beheaded heads in the bins.'
Loyd: What was that like, were these the heads of captives?
Begum: 'Yeah, it didn't faze me at all.'
Loyd: When were you when you heard that Kadiza (Sultana) had been killed?
Begum: 'In Raqqa. Her house was bombed because underground there was some secret stuff going on and a spy had figured out something was going on so her house got bombed and other people died as well.
'I never thought it would happen, at first I was in denial because I always thought it we get killed we would get killed together.
'I have to think about my baby as well. After my two kids died now I'm really overprotective of this baby. I'm scared this baby is going to get sick in this camp that's why I really want to get back to Britain because I know it will be taken care of. Healthcare wise at least.
'Losing them came as a shock, I never expected that.'
Loyd: 'A severed head didn't faze you but you're angry about oppression?'
Begum: 'Because you have to remember that these people, their beliefs are that you kill the non-Muslims but you treat the Muslims good.
'My husband said that when he was in prison there were men that were being tortured so badly that they would just admit to being a spy so they would be killed.
'So Dawlah has actually killed Muslims.'
Loyd: Do you regret coming here?
Begum: 'No, I don't regret it, but when I came here and I saw there was underground oppression and all this happening it was a shock to me.
'I spoke to my mother last when I was in Al Kiswah. Just before they took Al Kiswah I called her on the phone and said I wanted to leave.
'If I do get into camp I need them to be able to help me in my choice to come back to the UK.
'When I first came here the coach ride was really horrible, it was hot and stuff and I thought the contractions had started and I was bleeding so they took me to the hospital. I was there for five days then they took me back.
'I'm officially nine months. I should be giving birth any day now. Especially with this situation I will probably give birth soon.'
Loyd: Do you think this is the end of the caliphate?
Begum: 'Yes I really do, I don't have high hopes. They're just getting smaller and smaller and there is so much oppression and corruption going on that I don't really think they deserve victory.'
'It appears she's still radicalised and counts herself as a jihadi': The government has a legal obligation to let ISIS bride back to UK - but now it must establish what security threat she presents, expert says
By Charlie Winter, Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation
Shamima Begum, one of the three 'Bethnal Green girls' that left London for Syria in 2015, has been found in a refugee camp in northern Syria. Nine months pregnant, she says she only left ISIS's last remaining holdout because she was worried about the health of her baby. She reportedly had two other children while in ISIS territories, but both of them died.
Now, Begum wants to come back to the UK. As a British citizen, it is the government's legal obligation to let her come back—that is, I believe, a good thing.
British supporters of ISIS are a problem, but they are our problem and, where appropriate, they need to be tried under our legal system. Moreover, Begum's unborn child is innocent of any crime and deserves to be delivered from the circumstances under which it currently stands to enter this world.
Renu Begum, eldest sister of missing British girl Shamima Begum, holds a picture of her sister in 2015
The biggest challenge that British counter-terrorism authorities face with a case like this is determining what—if any—security threat Begum might present when she is back. Based on the interview she just gave, there are a few things worth highlighting.
Terrorism expert Charlie Winter says Begum cannot claim she isn't a threat based on the myth that women in ISIS aren't allowed to fight
First, it would be wrong to consider Begum a mere 'victim,' which is what her lawyer is asking for. Even if she didn't directly engage in acts of violence while she was living under it, she decided to stay there, and even said she doesn't regret going in the first place. That means she wanted to live somewhere in which non-Muslim women and children were being openly traded as sex slaves and disembodied heads were piling up in rubbish bins.
Second, although Begum says she lived a 'normal life' in ISIS, that doesn't mean she is not a potential security risk if she makes it back to the UK. It has long been rumoured that ISIS has been providing women—especially foreign women—with weapons and explosives training. The first time I heard this was from a Syrian defector from ISIS's all-female policing unit in 2015. Moreover, even though ISIS has prohibited women from fighting in the past, that position changed from mid-2017 onwards. For over a year now, it has been explicitly calling for women to engage in combat.
In other words, Begum cannot claim she isn't a threat based on the myth that women in ISIS aren't allowed to fight.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, Begum seems disillusioned with the reality of ISIS but not with the idea behind it. This means that, while she may have disengaged from the group, she hasn't necessarily disavowed the ideology behind it. This is a very important distinction to make, because it strongly suggests she is still radicalised and still counts herself as a jihadi.
There is only so much we can conclude based on this one interview. Now, it is up to the UK's relevant counter-terrorism authorities to assess what danger she may pose, both in the short and medium term.
The Brits who joined ISIS and were killed, captured or had their passports revoked
Jihadi John was the leader of The Beatles
The 'Beatles'
Alexanda Kotey, El Shafee Elsheikh, Mohammed Emwazi - known as Jihadi John and Aine Davis make up the quartet of terrorists known as 'The Beatles'.
They were named after the 60s band because of their English accents.
The four Londoners were linked to a string of hostage murders in Iraq and Syria during the bloody Islamist uprising. They also had a reputation for waterboarding, mock executions and crucifixions.
The US government said the group beheaded more than 27 hostages, including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, on camera.
Kotey and Elsheikh who were part of the beheading gang that included Jihadi John, were detained by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in January 2018.
The ringleader of the 'Beatles' -Jihadi John - was killed in an airstrike in 2015 in Syria. Aine Davis, is imprisoned in Turkey on terrorism charges.
Kotey (left), 35, and Elsheikh (right), 30, are being held by western-backed Kurdish forces in Syria and have been stripped of their British citizenship
Sally Jones
Jones, 50, became known as the 'White Widow' after calling for attacks on UK soil and moving to Syria with her jihadi husband Junaid Hussain in 2013.
The mother-of-one, originally from Chatham, Kent, was believed to have been killed in a US drone strike near the Syria-Iraq border, alongside her 12-year-old son JoJo, known as Hamza Hussain, in October 2017.
Sally Jones fled for Syria with her small son to join the ranks of the Islamic State group
Jones helped ISIS lure would-be jihadis and called for attacks on RAF bases and the Queen on VJ day. She travelled to Syria to marry terrorist Hussain was killed in a drone strike in 2015 although Jones kept producing propaganda for Daesh.
Jones has never formally been wiped off the US target list as her DNA was not recovered from the ground.
Siddhartha Dhar
Dhar is believed to have died in an airstrike in 2018
Dhar, 35, was used as a recruiting tool by propagandists after the death of fellow Brit Mohammed Emwazi - also known as Jihadi John.
Dhar, an ex-bouncy castle salesman from Walthamstow, East London, was the right-hand man to hate preacher Anjem Choudry.
The fugitive, also known as Abu Rumaysah,is believed to have died in an airstrike in 2018.
Dhar was born in London to a Hindu family. His friends remember him as 'Sid', who drank alcohol and dreamt of becoming a dentist.
But he was converted to Islam in his teens and radicalised by Choudary's banned Al-Muhajiroun group.
He later renamed himself Abu Rumaysah before being arrest with Choudhary and others on terror charges, only to skip bail.
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2019/02/14/shamima-begum-ex-london-schoolgirl-who-joined-isis-begs-to-come-home/
Main photo article The mother of an unrepentant schoolgirl who fled London to join Islamic State and now wants to return so the NHS can care for her baby says she understands why ‘people in this country don’t want her back’.
Jihadi bride Shamima Begum was just 15 when she and two pupils from...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2019/02/14/14/25DF49EB00000578-6702719-Shamima_Begum_pictured_in_her_passport_photo_is_now_19_and_is_al-a-54_1550155833494.jpg
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